I stood on the wood-paneled court, sweat dripping off my face, and my heart beating so hard I could feel my head pounding. But I didn’t feel tired. I felt like I could go on forever: dribbling, passing, shooting the ball. I wanted to score. I wanted to defend the basket. I wanted to keep playing. Most importantly, I wanted to remember this feeling. For most of my life, I had been average at sports. I never felt like...

The University of Michigan has many qualities that a prospective liberal arts student would look for in a school: an esteemed faculty, flexible curriculum, and a stimulated learning environment. When I took a closer look at its Philosophy Department, my intended area of study, I found many more qualities that attracted me to University of Michigan. While researching the Philosophy Department, I came across the website of Professor Elizabeth Anderson, the Department Chair. I enjoyed reading her published paper “Why...

For most of my life, people always asked me if I wanted to be a lawyer like my mom. I always answered with a definite “No.” To me, it looked like an excessive amount of paperwork and stress. However, I was also very unsure of which career I wanted to go into. I had ruled out any career in engineering, but other than that, I was at a loss. Eventually, I started to reconsider a career in law. Giving people...

(The question was: Everyone belongs to many different communities and/or groups defined by (among other things) shared geography, religion, ethnicity, income, cuisine, interest, race, ideology, or intellectual heritage. Choose one of the communities to which you belong, and describe that community and your place within it.) Tumblr: It is one of the many social media platforms that young adults use today, but also a community of many individuals that come together under shared interests. Some may find it a...

(Question: If you could only do one of the activities you have listed in the Activities section of your Common Application, which one would you keep doing? Why? ) I had always thought that I could only help someone by giving them advice. But when I joined Community Helpline, I was able to help numerous callers through only listening and reflecting feelings. I had never realized that the simple act of listening could be so powerful, and extremely gratifying. Listening to...

I think the important part of my essay was when I discussed my research of a faculty member of the program I was interested in. Do your research, it goes a long way.

do your research and show that you actually did it. write about...

When admissions time came around, I was generally lucky. Even though I was not accepted to my top school (UCLA), I still had a variety of options to choose from and ended up narrowing it down to UMich and USC. I liked UMich because of its similarity to UCLA in terms of academic reputation, sports, size, and overall student atmosphere. I liked USC because it meant...

I am currently in a pre-law fraternity on campus, Kappa Omega Alpha, and its honestly made my college experience so much better. I wanted to be involved in something law or politics related just to get to know people who have similar goals as I do, but its given me a lot...

Being a school from the midwest, Michigan has a pretty prevalent Greek life. I am personally not a part of social Greek life, but I do know a lot of people who are involved and...

There are a lot of different people here, like any big school, but unlike what I thought before, you really have to put yourself out there to find different types of people (they...

I wouldn't have applied to so many schools. In retrospect, I don't exactly regret it but...

Honestly, I didn't do much during the summers in high school but if there are opportunities to...